Secret Service Director To Appear For Public Hearing On Trump Assassination Attempt

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will testify next week before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the panel announced on Monday.

Scheduled to take place on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. ET on Monday, the public hearing will give lawmakers and the American people a chance to hear first-hand about the attack that took place at Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend.

“The Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others,” Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a post to X, adding that his panel will “get answers.”

🚨 The Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others.

On Monday, July 22, @GOPoversight will get answers in a public hearing with Director Cheatle.👇 https://t.co/YjFtYzqPSp

— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) July 15, 2024

On Saturday, a gunman opened fire and a bullet ripped through Trump’s ear. Secret Service personnel killed the shooter, but not before one rally-goer was killed and two others were injured, and rushed to the former president to offer him protection.

Questions have been raised about how the shooter managed to get onto a nearby rooftop and start shooting from roughly 150 yards away. Sources told NBC News the Secret Service had even identified the roof as a vulnerability before the rally.

Cheatle, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022, has said the “Secret Service is tasked with the tremendous responsibility of protecting the current and former leaders of our democracy. It is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously, and I am committed to fulfilling that mission.”

GOP senators are pushing the Democrat-led Judiciary Committee in the upper chamber to secure testimony not only from Cheatle, but also Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray for a hearing.

And following the shooting, which did not stop Trump from flying out to Milwaukee this week for the Republican National Convention, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced the House would conduct a “full investigation” into the attack.

“The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP,” he said in a post to X on Sunday.

Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to Mayorkas demanding information while noting “some reporting” that suggested his agency “rebuffed” multiple requests from Trump’s security detail to increase protective resources in recent weeks.

In a post to X on Sunday, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that there was “an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed.”

Guglielmi added, “This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.”

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers in the House, Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), said they were putting together legislation that would beef up Secret Service protection for presidential candidates, including Trump, Biden, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Jack Black’s Bandmate Has A Birthday Wish: ‘Don’t Miss Trump Next Time’

Just weeks after speaking at a fundraiser for President Joe Biden, actor Jack Black stood on stage with his band while bandmate Kyle Gass offered his reaction to the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump: ‘Don’t miss Trump next time.”

Black, famous for titles like “Shallow Hal,” “Kung Fu Panda,” and the reboot of “Jumanji” — took the stage with his band Tenacious D in Sydney, Australia, over the weekend — and just as a song was ending, Black offered Gass the opportunity to make a birthday wish.

Gass responded by voicing his apparent support for the gunman who shot at a former president and killed a Pennsylvania father and firefighter, wounding at least two others. “Don’t miss Trump next time,” he said.

WATCH:

Jack Black went on stage with his band over the weekend and said "don't miss Trump next time."

A month ago, he was a featured speaker at Biden's fundraiser in Los Angeles.

"We must come together" indeed. pic.twitter.com/zxhnZE6gol

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 15, 2024

One month earlier, Black was on a different stage raising money for Biden, cracking jokes about his patriotic stars & stripes overalls.

“A few days ago, my manager called me and said George Clooney and Julia Roberts wanted me to help out the president, and speak here tonight, and I said, ‘I am in. When and where?’” Black said at the time.

“And then they hit me with the big one. They said, ‘Jack, you can’t go. You have nothing to wear. Your good suit is in the cleaners.’ Well, were they wrong? Because I had this to wear, my kick-ass American flag overalls — most patriotic outfit of all times. And that shut ’em up.”

Black’s speech took place at the same Hollywood fundraiser that led fellow actor George Clooney to the conclusion that Biden was not, in fact, up to the task of another campaign and another four years as president.

“The one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” Clooney observed in a New York Times op-ed. “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal‘ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

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